‘National Treasure’ Is Becoming a Disney Plus Series

Hot take: The National Treasurefranchise might have been engineered as an attempt to cash-in on the mass popularity of historical puzzle thrillers in the wake of The Da Vinci Code, but the movies themselves — both starring Nicolas Cage as historian turned thief and American hero Benjamin Franklin Gates — are far superior to any of the three Da Vinci Code movies with Tom Hanks. And it’s not even close.

Here’s how he described the project, and the differences between the two to Collider:

We’re certainly working on one [National Treasure] for streaming and we’re working on one for the big screen. Hopefully, they’ll both come together and we’ll bring you another National Treasure, but they’re both very active….The one for Disney+ is a much younger cast. It’s the same concept but a young cast. The one for theatrical would be the same cast.

It’s not clear whether the movie and the series would be connected in some way as part of one overarching story — like maybe the series stars Benjamin Franklin Gates Jr. — or if the series will be about Cage’s character as a young man and set in the past, or perhaps featuring a totally different protagonist with a similar premise of historical treasure chases. I’m gonna guess it’s the latter, because it would be physically impossible to find an actor who can play Nic Cage as a young man except for Nic Cage wearing mocap gear.